Monongahela River Consolidated Coal And Coke Company
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Monongahela River Consolidated Coal And Coke Company
OR:
Monongahela River Consolidated Coal And Coke Company on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company was a railroad and coal transportation company, founded in 1899 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. It was formed by merging more than 80 independent coal mines and river transportation businesses, both in
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
and
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
. Initially, it had an agreement with the Pittsburgh Coal Company to ship its coal only by water, and not to compete with it by using rail transport, but the agreement was ended in 1902. It merged with the Pittsburgh Coal Company on 24 December 1915.


Mine, Railroad, and Incline

The company had a railroad and mine along Becks Run. The railroad was originally opened in 1878 (the same year that the mine opened) as a
narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
line by the
H.B. Hays and Brothers Coal Railroad The H.B. Hays and Brothers Coal Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad opened in 1878 to carry coal from the Hays family mines along Becks Run and Streets Run in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Both branches included an incline, and both are visib ...
.


Sprague

One important part of the business was the riverboat ''
Sprague Sprague may refer to: Places ;Canada * Sprague, Manitoba, a small town near the Minnesota/Manitoba border ;United States * Sprague, Alabama, Montgomery County, Alabama * Sprague, Connecticut * Sprague, Missouri * Sprague, Nebraska * Sprague, ...
'', nicknamed ''Big Mama'', a
steam powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
sternwheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were w ...
towboat A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a squar ...
capable of pushing 56 coal barges at once. A model of the ''Sprague'' is in the
National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium is a museum located in Dubuque, Iowa, USA. The museum is a property of the Dubuque County Historical Society, which also operates the Mathias Ham Historic Site. The museum has two buildings on it ...
in
Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Il ...
.


References

Coal companies of the United States Mining in Pennsylvania Defunct mining companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania History of Pittsburgh Defunct Pennsylvania railroads Defunct funicular railways in the United States Railway inclines in Pittsburgh Standard gauge railways in the United States Transportation in Pittsburgh Non-renewable resource companies established in 1899 1899 establishments in Pennsylvania 1915 disestablishments in Pennsylvania {{US-rail-transport-stub